{"id":323964,"date":"2025-12-03T01:36:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T01:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/323964\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T01:36:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T01:36:19","slug":"rory-mcilroy-hailed-by-colin-montgomerie-as-best-european-golfer-ever-after-historic-masters-winning-season-golf-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/323964\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy hailed by Colin Montgomerie as ‘best European golfer ever’ after historic Masters-winning season | Golf News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rory McIlroy has been hailed as “the best European golfer ever” by Colin Montgomerie following on from the five-time major champion’s sparkling 2025 season.<\/p>\n

McIlroy ended an 11-year major drought and completed the career grand slam with a thrilling triumph at The Masters in April, while the Northern Irishman can also count a Ryder Cup away win in New York – a first for Europe in the US since 2012 – and a seventh DP World Tour Order of Merit among his 2025 achievements.<\/p>\n

McIlroy’s latest Race to Dubai success – his fourth in a row – sees him pull to within one of Montgomerie’s record haul of eight, which the man himself expects to be broken eventually.<\/p>\n

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\"As<\/p>\n

Relive McIlroy’s 2025 victories at the Masters, the Ryder Cup, the Irish Open, the Players Championship and the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am<\/p>\n

“If there was one to do that and ever break my record, I would rather it be him,” Montgomerie told Sky Sports.<\/p>\n

“I would say now that Rory has won all four majors, I think you’d have to put him ahead of [Nick] Faldo and say that Rory is the best European player ever to play.<\/p>\n

“Faldo has six majors to Rory and Seve [Ballesteros]’s five. Does that necessarily mean Faldo is better than Rory?<\/p>\n

“Rory has achieved what no European player has achieved in the past by winning the career grand slam.<\/p>\n

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\"RORY<\/p>\n

Watch highlights of McIlroy’s rollercoaster round to win The Masters in a play-off against Justin Rose and complete the career Grand Slam!<\/p>\n

“There’s very little left for him. Having won all the majors, having won the Ryder Cup away twice, as he has in 2012 and 2025, there’s one thing left.<\/p>\n

“I’m sure that in the years to come, he’ll break my record.”<\/p>\n

McIlroy, himself, reserved praise for “underrated” Montgomerie in the lead-up to his latest Order of Merit title, hailing the Scot’s achievements in claiming seven of his record haul of eight in consecutive years (1993-99).<\/p>\n

“To sustain that for seven years straight, and win eight Order of Merits, it probably doesn’t get talked about enough,” McIlroy said.<\/p>\n

“Especially in that golden age of European golf where he’s going up against Faldo, [Sandy] Lyle, [Bernard] Langer and Woosie [Ian Woosnam].”<\/p>\n

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\"rory<\/p>\n

Europe’s Ryder Cup stars explain what the Grand Slam champion McIlroy means to golf<\/p>\n

Montgomerie admitted he was “very honoured” by McIlroy’s kind words.<\/p>\n

“He didn’t have to, and I appreciate what he said,” Montgomerie said.<\/p>\n

“In a way, he’s probably right. A lot of the guys now, his competition, are playing in America, where we didn’t really.<\/p>\n

“I remember when I won the Scandinavian Masters in 1991 to get onto the Ryder Cup team, I remember Seve was second, Faldo was third and Woosnam was fourth. That doesn’t happen now in Europe.<\/p>\n

“It was a very astute thing to say, and I was very honoured.”<\/p>\n

The current golfing landscape is dominated by McIlroy and world No 1 Scottie Scheffler, who shared three of the four major wins this year – and Montgomerie predicts similar in 2026.<\/p>\n

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\"golf \"<\/p>\n

Scottie Scheffler claimed his fourth major win and his first Claret Jug at Royal Portrush in 2025<\/p>\n

“There’s very much the one and two in the world and then a gap to number three,” Montgomerie added. “If it’s not Scottie Scheffler, it’s normally Rory McIlroy.<\/p>\n

“Rory’s season will really start with The Masters. He has to focus on that and see how he goes there, coming back as defending champion.<\/p>\n

“There will be a little less pressure on him, and I expect Rory to have a great season.<\/p>\n

“The way that he’s playing the game right now is extraordinary.”<\/p>\n

Colin Montgomerie was speaking to Sky Sports ahead of representing Team Europe in the Skechers World Champions Cup supporting Shriners Children’s, from December 4-7.<\/p>\n

The Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup-inspired global team competition will feature Team USA, Team International and Team Europe going head-to-head as they battle for international pride and global bragging rights.<\/p>\n

\"Golf<\/p>\n

Get the best prices and book a round at one of 1,700 courses across the UK & Ireland<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy has been hailed as “the best European golfer ever” by Colin Montgomerie following on from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-323964","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}